As a customer what is acceptable to you?

[bdog]

Amazon prime delivering virtually anything to me in two days has spoiled me. I have ordered things less than $5 and things over 10k and bam they are on my porch in two days with no shipping charge. Covid has caused a lot of chaos in the supply chain and while things are out of peoples control in some cases I still find it unacceptable. For example I ordered a widget and paid in full up front for it. I was told I would have it in 12 weeks. It is now 16 weeks, I don't have my widget, the manufacturer says it is beyond their control, they don't know when I will get it, and they are doing the best they can. They literally have no clue if I will get my item next week or 30 years from now.

What are your thoughts on this? They are still selling this widget on their website with no mention on there that if you pay for and order one it might five months before you get it. Seems like a shady business practice to me. They want their orders to keep piling in because once they have your money they got you. At this point I don't know what to do. I wasn't happy about a 12 week wait but figured I could live with it. Now that they haven't lived up to that timeline I am angry and feel deceived. I can assure you that once I get my item no matter how good it is I will never do business with this company again.

 

[4570Man]

I don’t like it anymore than you do but thats the reality we’re in currently.

 

[bdog]

I don’t like it anymore than you do but thats the reality we’re in currently.

Is it though? I run a business and order a ton of stuff for both personal and business purposes. 90% of the people I deal with still have reasonable delivery timelines or are at least are honest about it. Like you said some of it is the reality of what we are living in but I think some companies are intentionally vague about it in order to keep their orders coming in. I respect and will continue to do business with any company that is honest with me but those who are not I hope they go under.

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

Got you? File an AtoZ and call it done, Amazon will give you your money back. They get paid by both the seller and the buyer, they don't care if you receive your item or not.

Amazon is as disreputable as Walmart but people insist on poor service, poor quality, and getting rid of their reliable suppliers so all that they are left with is Amazon and Walmart.

Welcome to the future you created.

 

[grsthegreat]

Generators are like that now. 9 months out. But they dont charge you for it until it ships. Drawback on that is they have had 2 price increases in 8 months. So you pay higher price when its ready to ship.

 

[bdog]

Got you? File an AtoZ and call it done, Amazon will give you your money back. They get paid by both the seller and the buyer, they don't care if you receive your item or not.

Amazon is as disreputable as Walmart but people insist on poor service, poor quality, and getting rid of their reliable suppliers so all that they are left with is Amazon and Walmart.

Welcome to the future you created.

Im not talking about amazon? They are one of the few places that still do what they say. The people over promising and underdelivering are more along the lines of what I would call mom and pop shops.

 

[bdog]

Generators are like that now. 9 months out. But they dont charge you for it until it ships. Drawback on that is they have had 2 price increases in 8 months. So you pay higher price when its ready to ship.

I don't mind that if they are true to their word. What chaps my behind is a seller stating a lead time of X and then drastically missing it. If it is 9 months that is what it is. I will evaluate and make my order if I can wait that long but it sure as heck better not be longer than that unless you are planning on giving me a discount or something. Tell me however long it will be but there should be some sort of consequence to the seller if they dont hold up their end of the deal.

 

[oosik]

I see it as one of two things or both. They fear being honest with you will mean you won't order from them OR they truly have no idea on delivery time and are just winging it.

Knowing they can not deliver on a time schedule and, then, charging at the time of purchase is an insult and potentially fraudulent situation.

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm going through the same thing with Woodmizer. When I was talking to them in March they told me 18 weeks. I mailed my deposit and ordered via the local distributor, the order was processed on March 23 so 18 weeks would have gotten it to me around the end of July. I asked about it at the end of June and was told "They are building it Aug 12"... 3 weeks beyond their original estimate yet that's understandable.
I contacted the dealer this week and was told that the build date has been pushed back to Oct 21... 9 weeks beyond their original estimate.
I'm now asking myself how badly I want it. There will likely be snow on the ground by the time that I get it so won't be able to set it up until spring, meaning over a year from the order date by the time that I get to use it.
The dealer said they are having a hard time getting parts from their distributors, yet I go online and read about others who ordered after I did and already have their mills.

 

[mikester]

Amazon Prime seems to be a crock to me, nothing I've ordered using it comes any faster and stuff still takes over a month to get. I canceled my Prime for these reasons.

I say Amazon has made a lot of false expectations and the free shipping party can't last forever. Eventually sellers will stop wanting to get raped by Amazon over shipping and push back.

The reality is shipping costs money. If you don't want to see the shipping charges buy local and support your local businesses if you want to see stuff carried in inventory. Stop buying made in China crap and break the supply chain BS. If you choose to buy Amazon and Wallymart you are part of the problem.

 

[Jstpssng]

Amazon Prime seems to be a crock to me, nothing I've ordered using it comes any faster and stuff still takes over a month to get. I canceled my Prime for these reasons.

I say Amazon has made a lot of false expectations and the free shipping party can't last forever. Eventually sellers will stop wanting to get raped by Amazon over shipping and push back.

The reality is shipping costs money. If you don't want to see the shipping charges buy local and support your local businesses if you want to see stuff carried in inventory. Stop buying made in China crap and break the supply chain BS. If you choose to buy Amazon and Wallymart you are part of the problem.

I agree on all of your points. Also, expecting everything in two days puts a lot of pressure on the supply chain without compensating them accordingly. When you get to a certain income level though, the money is just a way of keeping score.
I try not to go through Amazon yet it's hard when the manufacturers themselves send you there from their website. I just ordered a new Dewalt impact wrench and had a heck of a time not going through Bezos.

I ended up going through Ebay instead... placed the order on Monday, ETA is tomorrow.

 

[Jchonline]

Amazon prime delivering virtually anything to me in two days has spoiled me. I have ordered things less than $5 and things over 10k and bam they are on my porch in two days with no shipping charge. Covid has caused a lot of chaos in the supply chain and while things are out of peoples control in some cases I still find it unacceptable. For example I ordered a widget and paid in full up front for it. I was told I would have it in 12 weeks. It is now 16 weeks, I don't have my widget, the manufacturer says it is beyond their control, they don't know when I will get it, and they are doing the best they can. They literally have no clue if I will get my item next week or 30 years from now.

What are your thoughts on this? They are still selling this widget on their website with no mention on there that if you pay for and order one it might five months before you get it. Seems like a shady business practice to me. They want their orders to keep piling in because once they have your money they got you. At this point I don't know what to do. I wasn't happy about a 12 week wait but figured I could live with it. Now that they haven't lived up to that timeline I am angry and feel deceived. I can assure you that once I get my item no matter how good it is I will never do business with this company again.

It is poor business practice to not provide a delivery timeframe on the same webpage where you buy an item from.

I bought a set of 9mm reloading dies from Dillon for $400 5 months ago. Their website said 12 weeks. I called at 16 weeks and they said still don’t have the steel to make them, more delays than anticipated. I asked for a refund and they happily provided it.

With the current supply chain issues, I call on everything I buy that isn’t coming from a place I buy from all the time. If they want me to pay up front I always make sure they offer no hassle refund prior to shipping. If not, no deal. If they don’t want me to pay up front I make sure they offer order cancellation prior to shipping free of charge.

Crazy stuff. I have been looking at log splitters (good ones) and some are at 30 week lead time.

 

[dougtrr2]

I encountered the classic underpromise/overdeliver situation on a bike rack. I wasn't in a hurry, so I ordered a well known rack through my local bike shop. It has been on backorder since January, but they keep bumping the date one month at a time.

I was talking with a fellow cyclist at the trail head and he spoke highly of 1UP bike racks out of Dickeyville, Wisconsin. I went to their website and their rack was priced about the same, and made in the USA. At that time their website stated that you could sign on to their waiting list. In 3-5 weeks you should be sent a "pass" to be able to order, and then you should receive the rack in 3-5 weeks.

I figured I had nothing to lose and signed up. I signed up on July 14th, got approval to order on August 4th, and recieved the rack on August 9th. Kind of nice to be told upfront to expect from 6 - 10 week delay and then get it in less than 4.

They were pleasant to deal with. There was a slight mixup on the process, probably due to me putting myself on the list for two different racks (figuring I would order the first one that became available). They are made in USA which is a plus for me. They are shipping about 300 racks per day at this point.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Hay Dude]

Amazon Prime seems to be a crock to me, nothing I've ordered using it comes any faster and stuff still takes over a month to get. I canceled my Prime for these reasons.

I say Amazon has made a lot of false expectations and the free shipping party can't last forever. Eventually sellers will stop wanting to get raped by Amazon over shipping and push back.

The reality is shipping costs money. If you don't want to see the shipping charges buy local and support your local businesses if you want to see stuff carried in inventory. Stop buying made in China crap and break the supply chain BS. If you choose to buy Amazon and Wallymart you are part of the problem.

I walked into a hardware store about a year ago looking for a DeWalt battery. The store didn’t have it. I said when can you get it to the store. They said “we will ship it here from Amazon”.
Nuff said.

 

[Bavarian]

Funny story at some point, but.....

My wife usually wants me to find a certain detergent that she insists to use.
Last year, I found it through Amazon.
The seller was in Calgary. We live in a very rural area in south eastern Manitoba.

After the shipment was overdue by quite some time, we contacted the seller. It turned out, UPS sent the parcel back due to an invalid address. They shipped it a second time.
The second shipment didn't arrive. UPS used all kind of excuses.
They delivered to our place before.

The lady at the shipper was p..... already, because they had to pay for the shipping every time. She offered the money back, my wife denied. She wanted the detergent.

They shipped a third time with UPS. Nope. Nothing showed up.

Now the shipper used a different parcel service which required us to pick it up not too far from us. Which was ok. A few days later, we got the call to get our detergent.

About two weeks after that, a UPS pulled up at our driveway. Guess what? They found the address and delivered those TWO shipments that were shipped earlier.

Now we recieved one order three times.

And we are talking about 6 boxes of detergent per order.

My wife asked me what to do. Sending it back? Who is paying for the shipping? The lady at the shipper was less than happy already.

My wife called her. We offered her to pay for the remaining two orders since we got the product.
We got a nice discount and the offer to order direct from them if we ever need some sgain.
We will but it won't be any time soon.

 

[MoKelly]

I walked into a hardware store about a year ago looking for a DeWalt battery. The store didn’t have it. I said when can you get it to the store. They said “we will ship it here from Amazon”.
Nuff said.

Exactly! These local stores have very limited inventory.

I needed a garage door motor circuit board. No one had it in stock. None of the garage door repair places. They chuckle when you even ask if it’s in stock.

One told me “why should we keep it in the offices when we can get it delivered in 2 days”?

It was on Amazon.

Ordered on Monday and will be here today.

I paid $49.00. The garage door repair place wanted $110.00. Yea - that seems right.

MoKelly

 

[fried1765]

Amazon prime delivering virtually anything to me in two days has spoiled me. I have ordered things less than $5 and things over 10k and bam they are on my porch in two days with no shipping charge. Covid has caused a lot of chaos in the supply chain and while things are out of peoples control in some cases I still find it unacceptable. For example I ordered a widget and paid in full up front for it. I was told I would have it in 12 weeks. It is now 16 weeks, I don't have my widget, the manufacturer says it is beyond their control, they don't know when I will get it, and they are doing the best they can. They literally have no clue if I will get my item next week or 30 years from now.

What are your thoughts on this? They are still selling this widget on their website with no mention on there that if you pay for and order one it might five months before you get it. Seems like a shady business practice to me. They want their orders to keep piling in because once they have your money they got you. At this point I don't know what to do. I wasn't happy about a 12 week wait but figured I could live with it. Now that they haven't lived up to that timeline I am angry and feel deceived. I can assure you that once I get my item no matter how good it is I will never do business with this company again.

EA ??????

 

[fried1765]

Amazon Prime seems to be a crock to me, nothing I've ordered using it comes any faster and stuff still takes over a month to get. I canceled my Prime for these reasons.

I say Amazon has made a lot of false expectations and the free shipping party can't last forever. Eventually sellers will stop wanting to get raped by Amazon over shipping and push back.

The reality is shipping costs money. If you don't want to see the shipping charges buy local and support your local businesses if you want to see stuff carried in inventory. Stop buying made in China crap and break the supply chain BS. If you choose to buy Amazon and Wallymart you are part of the problem.

"Amazon Prime" is a marketing method to hook customers into buying ONLY from Amazon.
It is a total sales gimmick, but millions of Amazon customers are hooked!

 

[Jstpssng]

"Amazon Prime" is a marketing method to hook customers into buying ONLY from Amazon.
It is a total sales gimmick, but millions of Amazon customers are hooked!

As I pointed out before it's hard NOT to buy from them, when even the manufacturer directs you to their site. I would have the above mentioned impact wrench by now had I ordered from Amazon; instead I spent a couple of days looking for another site. Even the "factory direct" outlet didn't have anything in stock. I'm not sure that Ebay is much better than but at least they allow independents on, and you can sell things like tractors and Yukons if you so desire.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

It can also vary by which item you order, where the originating manufacturer is located, and what parts make up the specific item.

For example, one of our suppliers recently tried to order a shipment of items from their manufacturer in China. When they submitted the order, they were told by the Chinese factory that a part that goes into the item was no longer being made by their supplier, so the item itself could no longer be made. Our supplier was not told this in advance of their order, and now they're caught flat footed, looking for a suitable substitute item. Meanwhile our supplier has outstanding orders from several customers (including us) for this item, and no way to know when, where or how they are going to fill those orders.

So in our case, this example, it was a "domino effect". International supply chain issues crop up even without the whole pandemic mess, but that isn't making it any better either.